Conceptual Inflation and Explanatory Entitlement: On the Limits of Construct Extension in Science
This article introduces explanatory entitlement as an epistemic category: the inferential right to deploy a construct as a basis for causal inference in a given domain. Drawing on Woodward’s interventionist account and Cartwright’s analysis of causal portability the article argues that this entitlement is conferred by demonstrated invariance and does not transfer automatically across levels or domains. When constructs are projected beyond their invariance conditions without bridging support, they undergo conceptual inflation: retention of explanatory authority without the evidential conditions that license it. The article formalizes this failure, distinguishes it from seven neighboring frameworks, and proposes a diagnostic structure.
Publisert i Philosophies, 2026
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